Sunday Faith News/Views 3-20-11 @ Maggie’s Notebook

Religion and politics make perfect sense to me. In these Sunday Faith news and views I bring news and views of both, concerning the other, or each individually. In the news is the death of a Christian minister, Andre Lachapelle, in Sendai, Japan, and the release from a Haiti prison of Christian missionary, Danny Pye.

Carl at GOD’S ANSWER is always Jesus, is talking about “words,” this week. We know they matter; “words…just words…our president said so (see the video below). While we receive the grace of the Almighty for the sorrowful words we have uttered that act like a knife twist to indefensible hearts, the receiver of those hurtful words will store them somewhere.

You see, Satan delights in bringing misery to mankind in any way he can. He will take every opportunity to inflict pain and hurt on us even if it comes through our memories. He will bring up every hurtful word spoken to you from those you love and care about.

How does he do that? It’s easy … all those words … all of them are still out there. Every word spoken in anger or frustration that entered your heart and mind are stored away somewhere. Some words spoken by others may have caused unintended wounds that the one speaking didn’t even know were hurtful. But they were.

No one knows where spoken words go. I don’t know if they go out into the air circulating around the world or perhaps deep in the recesses of your mind … but Satan has access to them. The proof of that is in how he brings them back up, reminding you of who said what … and he usually suggests the “real reason” as to why they were spoken. It will be a lie … but we listen and many times believe it.

Danny, who’s been working in Haiti for eight years, was detained and jailed in October 2010 after resolving a property dispute in a civil court hearing. Without explanation or any formal charges filed, authorities took him into custody after the hearing and he has been jailed since.

Danny’s wife, Leann – who is pregnant – says she immediately began working to get her husband released, but ran into numerous problems along the way. It’s been an emotional rollercoaster for the family. Danny was scheduled to be released from jail on Christmas Eve. A second judge determined that Danny had been illegally detained and signed orders for his release, but before Danny could leave the jail, the judge who initially put him in jail overruled that decision and ordered that he remain in custody.

Contrary to atheistic boilerplate, Christianity is anything but a crutch for the weak minded and timid hearted. Christians have gone to great lengths over the centuries to show that, while reason is no substitute for faith, and while it can never occupy anything other than a subordinate position with respect to the latter, reason can indeed establish at least the probability of God’s existence. Some Christians have gone further than this to argue that God’s existence is rationally demonstrable — that is, that it can be established with certainty by reason alone.

Rachel Wolff, a spokeswoman for World Vision, said a relief manager who worked on the scenes of earthquakes in Haiti and Pakistan was stunned by the destruction.

“He told me that this was unlike anything he’s seen anywhere around the world,” she said.

Churches and Christians in northeastern Japan, the most heavily affected area, are still out of contact days after the disaster.

Studies estimate that 2 percent of Japanese are Christian, with the vast majority practicing Buddhism and the indigenous Shinto religion.

A spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan told ENInews that the Rev. Lachapelle Andre, 76, of the Quebec Foreign Mission Society, was killed in Sendai, one of the cities hardest-hit by the quake and tsunami.

The priest went back to investigate damages to the Shiogama Church that he led, the spokesman said.

There were conflicting accounts from diocesan officials about the cause of death, though, with some saying he died of a heart attack or was caught in the tsunami that devoured towns on the coast.

Later reports indicate Lachapelle died from a heart attack. He had ministered in Japan since 1961.

“The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”
— Sen. Barack Obama, Dec. 20, 2007

Words…just words…

I know my country has not perfected itself. At times, we’ve struggled to keep the promise of liberty and equality for all of our people. We’ve made our share of mistakes, and there are times when our actions around the world have not lived up to our best intentions.

February 27, 2010: In the news, the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand and Bibles and Communion on the Moon. In the Views category, the advent of Chrislam (or Chr-Islam) and my own viewpoint; and if your days on earth are numbered by The Almighty, can you make it possible to die before your time? See a video on Chrislam below.

February 13, 2011: Video of Tommy Emmanuel Guitar: Amazing Grace; Echoes of God; Binding and Loosing Matthew 18:19; Did you know there is such a thing as Christian news from a black Christian perspective?; and a Yale Divinity School graduate student talks about Christianity in Egypt.

January 23, 2011: Is Christianity conservative, socialist/left or neither?; The New Year’s Day attack against te Coptic Christian Church in Alexandria, Egypt; Lahore, Pakistan – Christians converting to Islam to keep families safe; The Spirit of Fear 2nd Timothy 1:7, How to politely call someone a Bastard; Are dead birds and fish around the world a sign of end days?, The Pagan Caucus.

January 16, 2011: The European Union erases Christianity from calendars; The Christian church in Armenia, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords’ Rabbi speaks; How would Eve know evil before God revealed it?; Protecting Christians in Islamic countries, 70 Christians jailed in Iran since Christmas 2010, Being a blessing to those you love, What Really Happened in Eden; Can we see Jesus Better Than the Saints in the Bible, and the Eyes to see the Risen Lord;

January 9, 2011: the Christian church in Irbil, Iraq; Christians dying at the hands of Islam in Iraq; Blotting out the Law – Jesus took it out of the way; The American Patriot’s Bible and Abraham Lincoln; Christian blogs; The UK YWCA renames itself – “Christian” no longer represents the YWCA women; Faith and you iPhone.

January 2, 2011: The Ten Commandments and God’s will for The Law in our lives today – Colossians 2:14; A story of faith and the Rose Bowl, The new Congress may be the most pro-life House ever; New oversight of taxpayer money going to the United Nations and The Epiphany and Christian traditions blessing your home.